Great is the piano, splendid its literature, many its earnest students,
numerous its worthy exponents. That it is so often made a means of empty
show is not the fault of the piano, it is due to a tendency of the day
that calls for superficial glamor. Herbert Spencer was not so wrong as
some of the critics seem to think when, in his last volume, he said that
teachers of music and music performers were often corrupters of music.
Those certainly are corrupters of music who use the piano solely for
meaningless technical feats.
VII
The Poetry and Leadership of Chopin
"The piano bard, the piano rhapsodist, the piano mind, the piano soul is
Chopin," said Rubinstein. "Tragic, romantic, lyric, heroic, dramatic,
fantastic, soulful, sweet, dreamy, brilliant, grand, simple, all
possible expressions are found in his compositions and all are sung by
him on his instrument."
In these few, bold strokes one who knew him by virtue of close art and
race kinship, presents an incomparable outline sketch of the Polish
tone-poet who explored the harmonic vastness of the pianoforte and made
his own all its mystic secrets.
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